Page:An Australian Parsonage.djvu/98

 as stable, pig-stye, and hen-roost, and had thatched them with rushes which a neighbour allowed us to cut from the "blackboys" on his run. Our horse and cow were bought, and we had been presented with two pigs, and a cock and hen. We had also obtained some insight into the condition and habits of the neighbourhood, so that we felt ourselves at home and at our ease, and able to form a fairly just opinion as to all that went on around us.

As this little sketch does not pretend to be a journal, or to be written in chronological order, but merely to give an account of such things as would be likely to interest those whose home has always been in England, I shall make no apology for the somewhat desultory nature of the following pages, in which I prefer to give the results of our entire experience of the colony, rather than to detail the gradual process by which our acquaintance with West Australia and its inhabitants was ultimately obtained. Perhaps some account of our intercourse with the natives may be of interest to those who have never met with the wild man in his own land; and I may be pardoned if I give a somewhat diffuse history of our earlier intercourse with the tribe belonging to our immediate district, as we met them either in our rides about the bush, or when they paid us a visit at our own home.

At first we had thought that it would be impossible for us to ride or drive during the full heat of the day, and we had marvelled at the impunity with which our more distant neighbours were able to brave the sun when they rode up to our door at two or three o'clock in the afternoon. A very short experience, however, was sufficient to teach us that the clear dry air and exhilarating breezes,